Back on Two Wheels
I have been making some headway on the XS 650 lately and I’m happy to say that I rode it today and it’s a blast. The list of mods includes fabricating a rear fender and mounts, relocating the battery, regulator, rectifier and solenoid, a headlight swap and lowering, lowered forks, lowered rear, solo seat, chopper wiring, painting the tank and fender, high flow exhaust, single points conversion, high output coil, high flow air filters and a general shaving of all extraneous parts. My friend says it looks like a bike Steve McQueen would ride. That is probably the highest compliment I could have been paid for all this hard work.
After fabricating mounts to reposition the battery box and all the other electronics, I decided to pare down the wiring to just the essentials. To do this I got out my wiring diagram and unwrapped the whole harness and started cutting out everything I didn’t want. Basically it goes battery > solenoid > fuse > main switch and then splits two ways. One circuit handles the power to the coil and the other handles the lights. Power to the rectifier and regulator is right after the fuse. Lights come on as long as the bike is running. And that’s it! Gotta love a wiring diagram that you can draw from memory in less than 60 seconds.
I’m trying my hand at rebuilding a ’78 650. I like what you’ve done. Wondering where you put the battery? Good job.
Thanks! It’s right behind the air cleaners.
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